Dell Special Committee Backs Michael Dell Buyout Bid 38
DavidGilbert99 writes "In a surprising move, the special committee set up to decide which buyout offer was best for Dell has chosen to back the bid from founder Michael Dell, which promises the shareholders a smaller payday and will see him remain the head of the company."
Their SEC filing on the matter indicates they are not confident that Icahn's counter-offer would actually provide the promised $12/share dividend.
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Now look were we stand.
Re:This would be an April 1 joke! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep I see it too. Dell is moving to the enterprise and fast on its way to becoming a mini IBM where Apple is peddling gadgets and desperate for a new idea.
seems reasonable (Score:5, Insightful)
In particular, the deal comes with a "majority of the unaffiliated" vote requirement, meaning that for it to go through, a majority of shareholders other than Michael Dell must vote in favor. If that happens, i.e. a majority of non-Michael-Dell shareholders think he should be allowed to purchase and continue running the company, then there is no reason it shouldn't happen.
Re:seems reasonable (Score:4, Insightful)
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Don't worry. Some irresponsible journalist will find the minority shareholders that don't want Michael Dell to buy the company out and get a nice story plastered all over Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. They'll probably spin it as a failure of the corporate model and that new, stronger laws should be passed to give shareholders more leverage.
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>> If that happens, i.e. a majority of non-Michael-Dell shareholders think he should be allowed to purchase and continue running the company, then there is no reason it shouldn't happen.
Of course, assuming Michael Dell does not have undue influence on any of the other shareholders or those people are added to the "is Michael dell class". (FYI, this is a bad assumption).
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they have more US operators than overseas. They have both though, because they need their business support to be top notch.
Actually, they have both because the business customers complained so loudly that they were forced to re-shore business support.
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I agree. That's been my experience as well.
On TFA, it's good news - Dell will continue to do business as usual, but make better decisions since the Wall Street pressure to show good numbers every quarter will no longer be there. Dell can make good long term decisions even if it means bad short term setbacks, w/o being dinged for it by Wall Street. They can decide what sort of a company they want to be, which markets to play in and which to leave, and where they have a good future.
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Funny story time.
I once called about a server issue with gold support, I could not understand the person speaking so I asked to be transferred to someone who spoke better english. This person flipped out about how he was in Georgia and from there, or so I guess since I still could barely understand his mutterings. I would rather speak to an Indian than someone from the deep south if I need to be able to understand what they say. For those who don't know what I mean, they screw up whole words; Specific beco
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Lucky you. I haven't since about 2003.
Re:First Task (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Michael Dell should consult with Michael Dell (Score:4, Informative)
As has been pointed out in the past, he said that in 1997 when Apple was floundering as a result of all the delays to Copland and struggling as a result of their inability to introduce an OS for the PowerMacs that were as modern as Windows 95 and the various Unices. It wasn't until 2001 - 4 years later - that Apple had OS X, which surfaced on PowerMacs. So in the context of all that, Dell had said, when asked, that he would be probably one of the worst people to lead Apple, and that if he got the job, that's what he'd do.
Another case of taking a statement out of context, and applying it ridiculously. Something similar that used to be done to the late Ken Olsen of DEC
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It sounds a bit like he had a neighbor's friend die and he suggested "Bury her already", and now it is his turn and he is digging a hole in the ground. Sucks to be him, but I don't see anything wrong with what he is doing.
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So you'd shut down the #1 PC maker in the US (#3 worldwide) because.....?
Special Committees are great (Score:1)
In other news, Hamburglar prefers McD's hamburgers (Score:2)
Cut the small stuff (Score:3)
I wonder if he will take drastic measures to cut home and small box support like IBM did. Dell is going to a services only model and big enterprise stuff where the pretty margin lives. It's hard to cut half of your income and survive Wall Street but I'm guessing that's the idea.
I have a feeling there will be pretty huge internal changes.
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Let's just say I have a long personal history with said company. :P
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Small stuff? Dell is America's #1 PC maker. They're #3 worldwide, behind HP and Lenovo. Granted, PCs aren't selling like they did 10 years ago because the market has matured (except in developing countries) and computers are so powerful that there is less incentive to replace them every 3-5 years like there was years back. Nevertheless, they still sell a LOT of PCs and I highly doubt they'd just throw that business away.
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They do sell a lot but they don't make a lot from it. The margins are almost negative after all the overhead that goes into supporting it. It's really all Dell's fault for making computers so cheap with their crazy business model.
Let's just say I have a long personal history with them and it wouldn't surprise me one bit. Consumer took a big hit a couple years ago because they were ignoring that segment to coddle services. They spent billions on Perot and infrastructure for cloud services. They are changing
whoa (Score:2)
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Maybe that's what he wants to change? Take Dell back to the day where people actually wanted their systems because they actually stood for quality once?